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• 'APPROXIMATION OF ETERNITY' | 4:34 a.m. ET

There is probably only one place in the world where the cash machines give instructions in Latin: Vatican City.

The tiny papal state that will host pilgrims and presidents for the funeral of Pope John Paul II on Friday is seen as both extraordinary and mundane.

It is the world’s smallest state but one of its most influential, filled with some of the world’s greatest artistic treasures — and its deepest secrets.

Behind its walls lie Michaelangelo’s Sistine Chapel, rooms of Raphael frescoes, a 1,600-year-old tomb and manicured gardens with tulips and pines.

Cardinals in red cassocks discuss Church business in its Apostolic Palace, monsignors pass Vietnamese nuns in the shadow of St. Peter’s Basilica.

But there is also a gas pump, a bank, a train station, a post office, a world-renowned pharmacy and a supermarket. The state has its own police, passports and license plates.

“It is an approximation of eternity,” is how Italian writer Vittorio Zucconi described Vatican City.

Mario, a Vatican security guard who would not give his surname, laughed at the suggestion.

“It’s like anywhere else, maybe a little quieter,” he said, standing at an entrance on the side of St. Peter’s where workmen covered in dust emerged from digging John Paul’s tomb.

• CHINESE ENVOY TO SKIP FUNERAL | 3:45 a.m. ET

The Chinese government said Thursday it won't send an envoy to Pope John Paul II's funeral due to the Vatican's diplomatic relations with rival Taiwan.

"Under the current circumstances, China will not send a delegation," said Foreign Ministry spokesman Qin Gang.

China refuses to have any official contact with governments that recognize Taiwan as a sovereign country. The mainland claims the island as part of its territory. The Vatican is the only European government that has official relations with Taiwan instead of Beijing.

The Chinese government said this week it would consider opening relations with the Vatican only if it breaks ties with Taiwan and avoids interference in Chinese affairs.

"We hope the Vatican will take concrete steps for improving China-Vatican relations, instead of setting up new barriers," Qin said at a regular news briefing.

China's communist government ordered its Roman Catholics to break ties with the Vatican in 1951.

• MASSIVE SECURITY NET | 1:50 a.m. ET

Rome has imposed a no-fly zone, installed anti-aircraft missiles and drafted thousands of extra police to protect world leaders and faithful at Friday’s funeral for John Paul II.

• REGRETS FROM ORTEGA | 11:05 p.m. ET

Former Nicaraguan leader Daniel Ortega says he regretted a clash with Pope John Paul II who was heckled by leftist Sandinista supporters during a 1983 visit.

Ortega said the face-off between the Sandinistas and the pope -- who opposed guerrilla movements fighting dictatorships across Latin America -- had not been intended.

“The truth is there was no intention of showing disrespect to the pope. We did everything possible for his visit to be a success,” said Ortega.

Ortega greeted the pope on his first visit to Nicaragua with a long speech about U.S. imperialism in the region. Then, angered by the presence of two priests in the Marxist Sandinista government that overthrew the Somoza family dictatorship in 1979, John Paul II publicly wagged his finger at one of them.

That night, thousands of Sandinista supporters disrupted his open-air mass in the capital Managua by shouting political slogans and demanding that he bless the revolution.

Shaking his pastoral staff, the pope ordered the Sandinistas to be quiet, but he was ignored by many in the crowd.

“There were no insults against his Holiness, there was not a word said that attacked his Holiness’s office,” Ortega told Reuters.

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